Dive-bombing Gulls Turn Blue Jays Fans Into Dodgers

You`d rather not, of course. But for Toronto residents who want to walk, picnic or attend baseball games along the city`s inviting lakefront, the gulls can make life a real mess.

Among the hardest hit, so to speak, are Toronto Blue Jays fans, who have to contend with huge squadrons of the birds swooping over Exhibition Stadium and leaving their calling cards on the 44,000 seats.

Frequently, the daredevil dive bombers even venture onto the field during play. ``They`ve gotten braver as the years go by,`` said Rick Amos, operations supervisor for the Blue Jays. ``They`ll land on the field during the game.

``Games have been delayed when they get in the infield. . . . I`ve even seen incidents when the birds were circling above the pitcher`s head and he had to step off the mound until they left.``

Ken Erskine, Blue Jays director of operations, said, ``People throw food onto the field, and the birds start to stay there. They don`t give a damn if the ballplayers are trying to play catch between them. There were a couple instances--I`ve seen two--when a routine fly was hit into the outfield and the gulls actually lunged at it.

``What would happen if you were playing a game and a gull interfered with the ball? It sure would make for an interesting ground rule.``

The gull problem received added publicity, almost becoming an international incident, in the 1983 season when Dave Winfield of the New York Yankees threw a warm-up ball toward a bat boy and struck a gull instead. The gull died of internal injuries. Winfield was taken to a police station and charged with cruelty to animals, but the charge was dropped later.

For Blue Jays fans it`s a, well, sticky situation.

As Amos delicately put it: ``They do have to watch their heads.``

``The droppings are a real problem when you prepare the stadium,``

Erskine said. ``We hose down the seats before each game with a high-power nozzle.

``Sometimes it`s almost like being on roller skates. The (cleaning)

fellow gets called to one section, then another section. And you can have the space spotless 45 minutes before the game . . . and then by the time the fans come in, some areas look like they`ve never been touched.``

What draws the brazen birds to the ballpark, the experts agree, is plentiful food, usually dropped on the ground and seats by fans, and the bright stadium lights. But how to send them packing to a retirement roost is less easily answered.

At the moment, Blue Jays management is considering two schemes and hopes to make some kind of decision before the season starts April 16.

One, which already is thought unworkable, is to transmit over the stadium`s public address system some kind of high-pitched sound that only gulls can hear.

But, Erskine said, ``apparently that has no lasting effect. Gulls are very intelligent birds. Once they hear the sound but don`t see anything threatening there, well . . .``

The suggestion that seems to be getting more support and the most attention is that the Blue Jays hire a professional falconer to send several of his birds of prey aloft for a swoop around the stadium before each game. This, theoretically, would frighten off the gulls without actually killing any and keep the stadium gull-free during the game.

This same system of using falcons to scare off the gulls is being used successfully at Toronto`s international airport, where the gulls pose a danger to flights. ``They fly birds of prey there every day,`` Erskine said. ``And apparently there`s no bird within miles.``

But there are a lot more people in the stadium to act as witnesses if one of the hawks or falcons should happen to catch up with a gull. Such a situation would have all the trappings of a public relations nightmare for the Blue Jays.

One of the few comforts the Jays staff has is that the gulls should be a headache for just three more seasons. Then, if everything goes according to schedule, the team will move to a new, domed stadium downtown. The plans were unveiled last week.

But for the rest of those who want to take advantage of Toronto`s lakefront the problem will remain--and City Hall takes it seriously.

Ald. Tony O`Donohue, chairman of the city`s Water Pollution Committee, which also takes the bird problem under its wing, said, ``Most people just want to talk about these bloody birds.``

He attributes the real birth of the problem to a spit of land built in recent years off the waterfront with landfill from various projects. That spit, about three miles long, quickly became a nesting ground for gulls and Canada geese, which also have become a major nuisance along the lakefront.

``About 200,000 pairs (of gulls) nest there each year, and each usually has about two (offspring),`` O`Donohue said. ``I`d now guess there are maybe a million sea gulls in Toronto in the summer.``

As is often the case in situations like this, the public has come to theuggestions on how to deal with the birds. O`Donohue said he has heard most of the ideas.

``One guy wanted to ship `em all to Saskatchewan because they have a worm problem there,`` he saleast, no one has suggested an idea put forth several years ago involving the Canada geese.

That plan, quickly scotched, was to catch the birds and turn them into Christmas dinners for a holiday goose.